A group of Black Cats supporters have hired a plane to fly a banner above St James’ Park as the Toon take on Spurs on Sunday afternoon.

Aerial advertising company Air Ads tweeted a picture of the banner to be flown above the stadium between 3.15pm and 3.30pm. The message will read “Auf Wiedersehen Prem”.

It has been revealed that a group of Sunderland fans raised £900 to pay for the flight, via an online crowdfunding page. More than £1,000 was raised and the rest of the cash is to go to charity.

Now Geordies have clubbed together to raise money through another Gofundme page, with the aim of splitting the total between three charities - The Alan Shearer Foundation, The Sir Bobby Robson Foundation and Sunderland AFC charity The Foundation of Light.

More than £660 was collected in just one day, thanks to both NUFC and SAFC followers.

A message on the page read: “We don’t need a banner, we don’t need a plane.

“We aim to match our rivals GoFund page which is raising money to fly a plane/banner over SJP on Sunday.

“Let’s show that despite both clubs being in a dire situation (one more so than the other) that we can still make a positive from a bad situation.

“The rivalry will always remain strong in the North East, but our charitable side (from both sets of fans) will always shine through.

“Imagine if we raised £1 for every cringeworthy Facebook status, tweet or Instagram post from fans on both sides? We’d smash the target out of the park.”

The gesture was praised by both sets of fans.

One donor said: “Great causes that do a lot of good work. Better than wasting it on a banner.”

Another commented: “Fantastic idea and much better than squandering it on a banner. All worthy charities.”

While a Sunderland supporter added: “Donating to something decent as the plane banner is cringeworthy! SAFC fan.”